"I'll never forget it. The bomb was on the right side of the Buffalo," Ryan Tomlinson, a former Marine corporal, told BI.

Tomlinson was on Main Supply Route Michigan, near Ramadi. He'd attached as a photographer to a group of engineers on a route clearance mission, looking for IEDs — a mission which the Buffalo, a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) was particularly well suited to do.

Reason being: it came with a 16-foot remote controlled arm. Troops called it, "The Claw."

"When the bomb went off, it scared the hell out of me. Three [155 mm shells] wired together. Blew the arm clear off the vehicle. Rear end was mangled. Huge pieces of shrapnel sticking out of the glass," said Tomlinson, who watched this from his MRAP, parked not too far away.

"[Later] all the Marines climbed out. Aside from being shaken up, nothing happened to them."

"Yeah," concluded Tomlinson, "It's kind of like a giant tank."

The giant Buffalo also appeared as the vehicle aspect of the Decepticon Bonecrusher in the "Transformers" movie series. Because of this, the movie "Transformers" has taken on a cult status with some U.S. Army Engineer Route Clearance units.